Page 89 - Health, Population and Environment Education 9

5.1 Introduction to Family Life Education

After the birth, life of an individual starts in the family. Parents and other family members
love and take care of a baby. A baby learns language and gradually develops to a child. A
child acquires basic life skills and understands society, its norms and values, moral
lessons, manners, etc. A child achieves knowledge and skills in school and becomes
adolescent. An adolescent has physical, mental , emotional and social changes, understands
the life in a way and enters the youth stage. A youth becomes mature, has broad
understanding about family life and family relationship. He/she gets married, bears
children and fulfills all the responsibilities as a responsible parent. With the passing of
time, a youth becomes old, gets retired in life and finally dies. These all are parts of our
life. Family life education supports an individual in each and every parts of our life.
Family life education is an educational
programme which is designed to support
young generations in their physical, emotional
and moral development to make them able to
cope with temporal changes like adolescence,
puberty and ageing with an objective of living
a better family life.
It can also be defined as an educational process
which assists the members of the family in
their physical, mental, emotional and moral Fig: 1
development as they prepare for adulthood,
marriage, parenthood, ageing as well as their social relationships in the socio-cultural
context of the family and society.
Family life education is very important in every part of life. It guides individuals to face
challenges in life and take responsible decisions for family welfare as well as individual
development. Life of an individual is important even from childhood. Family life
education gives knowledge to children to know about family, society, norms and values
of society, discipline, etc. It is more required during adolescence. As a matter of various
changes, adolescents have stress on several conditions. Family life education can impart
required knowledge on them and show the ways to overcome problems with positive
attitudes and feelings. Many youths are unware about proper parenthood and caring of
children as well as various aspects of family life. Family life education provides practical
guidelines for the solution of family problems and better nurturing of children. Old age
is the retirement period in our life. Old people need special attention and care. Family life
education prepares people to face the challenges and tackle the problems in old age. It
develops the feeling of love, affection, care, co-operation and sympathy among each other
in the family and helps in the overall development of family members.

Stages of family life

From birth till death, people have to pass through different stages in life. Each of the stages
are quite different from each other and each of them has different importance, experience,
growth and development. Some of the stages of family life are described below:
GREEN Environment Population and Health Education Book-9 89